In many printing systems, it is common practice to develop a hardcopy of an image using a photoconductive surface. The photoconductive surface is selectively charged with a latent electrostatic image having image and background areas. A liquid developer comprising charged toner particles in a carrier liquid is brought into contact with the selectively charged photoconductive surface. The charged toner particles adhere to the image areas of the latent image while the background areas remain clean. A hardcopy material (e.g. paper) is brought, directly or indirectly, into contact with the photo-conductive surface in order to transfer the latent image. Variations of this method utilize different ways for forming the electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor or on a dielectric material.
Typically the liquid developer (also referred to in the art as liquid toner) comprises a thermoplastic resin (polymer) as the basis for the toner particles (also referred to in the art as ink particles), and a non-polar liquid as a carrier liquid in which the toner particles are dispersed. Generally, the toner particles contain a colorant such as a pigment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,526 describes a method and device for simultaneously transferring and fusing an image from an image receptor to a recording medium. The method includes forming a toned image layer on a surface of an image receptor, the toned image layer comprising a toner material and a radiation curable material. The toner may be dry or liquid.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,839 describes a method for printing an image on a page by an electrophotography process comprising transferring a toner image to a page, and separately fusing the toner to the page by applying UV light to the toner. The toner is especially formulated to facilitate curing and/or fusing of the toner to paper. It is mentioned that the toner may include toner particles suspended in a UV curable resin.
JP 61-156262 describes a liquid developer for electrostatic photography having toner particles that comprise a coloring agent and a copolymer of mono-functional and multi-functional (meth)acrylates. The multi-functional (meth)acrylates mentioned, have between 2 and 4 functional groups. The reference states that suitable proportions of multi-functional (meth)acrylates to mono-functional (meth)acrylates are in the range of about 0.01-1:1 (by weight).